Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Janet Dawson

Janet Dawson is a longtime resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, but she was born in Oklahoma, where her mother's family owned movie theaters in a small town. Dawson's novel, BIT PLAYER, -- a novel of old movies, old memories, old crimes and present-day murder -- is dedicated to her mother. Janet was nominated in 2012 for Left Coast Crime's Golden Nugget Award for BIT PLAYER.

(Dawson’s photo by Charles Lucke)

PI Jeri Howard, Janet’s series character, has sleuthed her way through ten books, the first of which won the St. Martin's/PWA award and other mystery award nominations. Dawson is past president of the MWA NorCal chapter, and works for Cal Berkeley.

Her newest book, WHAT YOU WISH FOR, is her first stand-alone novel.

(Quoting from Amazon.com)

“History professor Lindsey Page has a quiet, well-ordered life, but it's about to get complicated. Her daughter, with whom she has a troubled relationship, shows up on her doorstep. The immigrant woman Lindsey is interviewing for a book asks her for help in reclaiming the son taken from her during a massacre in her Salvadoran village. And her closest friends, the three women Lindsey has known since their college days in Berkeley where they witnessed the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, are hiding secrets that will forever change those friendships.

“Lindsey must grapple with questions of family identity, nature vs. nurture, truth in wartime, the ethics of power for latter-day robber barons in the US and Central America, and the law of unforeseen consequences. Moving back and forth from the 1970s to the present, from the San Francisco Bay Area to El Salvador this sprawling saga follows Lindsey, her friends, and family through tumultuous political, social, and cultural changes and choices.”